The do's and don'ts of map making.

[Dashman]

so far, so good. Really good tutorial. Keep up the good work

[VulcanRaven336]

This is one of the best map tutorials I have ever read. Very well explained as well as shown. Good job dude, you really are cool after all eh?

[Ace of Spades]

These are good tutorials, nice job. ^^ I actually think that this may deserve a sticky, it can do loads of help for people.

[Meiscool-2]

Originally posted by Ace of Spades
These are good tutorials, nice job. ^^ I actually think that this may deserve a sticky, it can do loads of help for people.

Already ahead of you  

[Meiscool-2]

Alright. It's been awhile from when I last updated this, and I just did a map for the mapping comp, so I thought I would post here a few eventing things that I did.

Here's the map that I did:



Now, there are some different things object wise and eventing wise I did here. The highlight of this though will be TRANSPARENCY.

 Transparency is not all that important, but it adds a realistic feeling to the maps. If you look above, I put anything and everything (aka the rocks) nearby the water at a transparent lvl to make them look like they are under the water. If you don't do that, it still looks ok, but not as good. Example:



If you compare the two, you should notice that one looks more realistic then the other because of having transparent events rather then normal objects.

It is also important to make any charas and etc in the water transparent was well. You can do this two ways, either going into the database and seting it to make events 1/3, 1/2 or 1/1 transparent. Or, you can just make the event itself transparent. This is most important with fish. Example, in the two pictures above the fish are transparent, but in the one below, they are not:



Now they stand out a bit clearer, but in real life you wouldn't be able to see a fully illusive fish, so make them transparent one way or another.

Lastly (this has nothing to do with transparency) you should always try to find something to put at the bottom of a water fall to ensure that it doesn't look like it's just there. For example, in all the pictures above, the water fall has water splashing where it ends to add a realistic effect. However, if it doesn't, it will look choppy and crappy, like this:



That's it for today, merry X-mas and etc guys!

[Seth Mitchell]

Hey, with shading, how do you do like shading at an angle. As in like in aley ways. or on hte side of builinds.

[Meiscool-2]

Originally posted by Seth Mitchell
Hey, with shading, how do you do like shading at an angle. As in like in aley ways. or on hte side of builinds.

You need either event's or something that the chipset comes custom with. You can do it other ways, but it looks less choppy if you just use a chipset that comes with oblique shading.

[DragonBlaze]

 

Hey, with shading, how do you do like shading at an angle. As in like in aley ways. or on hte side of builinds.

Well if you're chipset doesn't have anything on it, you can always use a picture file with black to add shadow effects and you can make smooth shading by adding grey's or the buildings/objects original color. You would have to line it up correctly and find a transparency setting that looks good too.

[Meiscool-2]

Exactly why I didn't explain how to do it with events, because I knew my dragon pal here would explain it for me and save me the work :p

[Celius_401]

im no expert at world maps, but i just make a bunch of islands that have cliffs and stuff, more than one terrain lvl to them you know?  Not all the way flat

[Celius_401]

lol, cancle that last post, i replied to page one, not 3.  My bad

Good tips meiscool!

[MrMister]

Nice, that one is really good looking. Although the player might get annoyed without diagonal movement.

Heh, you all think she is a man. That is hilarious.

[Meiscool-2]

Well, that little retard Celius (aka Adam) knows my true sex. PM him to get it, no better yet, PM him just to annoy him! Give him chain mails too, he hates those!

[Zanzibar: Combat Lawyer]

I just read your adding on section, and that helped me so much. Thanks!

Also, what chipset did you use for the open plains house? I really don't like the one that comes with the game.

[Meiscool-2]

That chipset was a self edit that I would rather keep for myself, but you can look on Gamingw.net and the charas resources for other things.

Ok, my very good mapping buddy Robotam will be adding to this tut. His views on mapping are different then mine, but I consider him my equal in mapping, and honestly think he should've won the contest over myself.

He is the only one allowed to add here, the rest of you please don't add your opinions without asking me via PM first.